AdSpotting: Toyota Yaris is a car, and apparently, not much else

Filed under: Marketing/Advertising , Videos , Toyota Company : Toyota Brand : Toyota Medium : Online Product : Toyota Yaris Campaign : It’s a car! What We Like : Placing Michael Showalter in your ads earns automatic bonus points with us. These spots are pretty funny, and Showalter is the driving force behind the humor. Also, it’s refreshing to see an automaker take a self-deprecating point of view from time to time. What We Don’t Like : We think Toyota is basically saying that the new Yaris is as simple of an automobile as you can find. The tounge-in-cheek humor is used to mask the fact that the Yaris isn’t much more than an appliance on wheels. Strategy : Toyota is really going out on a limb by using humor to highlight the fact that the new Yaris is a rather basic automobile. Still, the spots do manage to point out the fact that this vanilla machine has some solid features for its price point. Despite that fact, we’re torn on this campaign. The spots themselves, which you can view after the jump , are hilarious but ultimately come across as spoof material put together by a competing automaker. Grade : C (We’re split, and this grade reflects our feelings.

What We Like: Placing Michael Showalter in your ads earns automatic bonus points with us. These spots are pretty funny, and Showalter is the driving force behind the humor. Also, it’s refreshing to see an automaker take a self-deprecating point of view from time to time.

What We Don’t Like: We think Toyota is basically saying that the new Yaris is as simple of an automobile as you can find. The tounge-in-cheek humor is used to mask the fact that the Yaris isn’t much more than an appliance on wheels.

Strategy: Toyota is really going out on a limb by using humor to highlight the fact that the new Yaris is a rather basic automobile. Still, the spots do manage to point out the fact that this vanilla machine has some solid features for its price point. Despite that fact, we’re torn on this campaign. The spots themselves, which you can view after the jump, are hilarious but ultimately come across as spoof material put together by a competing automaker.